Teaching Strategies and Distributed Guided Practice/Summarizing Prompts:
Start by telling the students that you are going to do some research about the history of the City of Buffalo. Do a simple Google search for the word "buffalo" and note the number of results that are returned (136,000,000)--way too many to browse.
Now, show them how to begin an advanced search. Click on "advanced search" and enter the following information:
Type the word "history" with the word "buffalo".
Explain what the "exact wording or phrase" line is, but don't type anything there.
Do the same for the "one or more of these words" line, and note the Boolean Search Term "OR".
Have the kids tell you words that use the word Buffalo, but aren't related to "History of" Buffalo, such as "chicken wings, animal, bison, bills, sabres, etc" and type those words into the "Don't include pages with these words". Explain why you're doing this.
You can explain the "Need More Tools?" section, but you don't have to put anything there.
Press "enter" to complete your search, and note the number of results that are returned (about 650,000). Compare this number to the number of results they started with just "Buffalo". There are much fewer, AND the top results are more relevant to exactly what they want to find--the history of Buffalo, NY.
Look through some of the top results and read the descriptions. Show them how to use the descriptions as well as the URLs and domain names (that they've already learned about) to pick a site that will help them--instead of just clicking the first result "because it's there".
Explain to the students that it's all about thinking and planning before you search. To complete a successful Google Search, you have to think about what exactly you want to know (History of Buffalo) and how you'll find it effectively. Ask yourself: "What are the most important words in my topic that will help me find a webpage?"--Buffalo, history--, "Are there synonyms I can use in my search?", "Looking at my keywords, can I think of anything that Google might show me that is NOT related to my topic?"--chicken wings, bison, Bills, etc. Thinking about this beforehand will help you find exactly what you want quickly.
Show them this page http://21cif.imsa.edu/tutorials/challenge/Q2Q/KeywordChallenge.swf and do the "Great Wall Challenge" with them on the screen so they can see how to do it. Have them try the other three (link for site is saved on Moodle Page as "Internet Search Keyword Practice").
Have them practice doing a real search with this challenge: http://21cif.imsa.edu/tutorials/challenge/SC001/SC_002.swf (Link saved on Moodle page as "Kermit's Internet Search Challenge"). It's tricky, but it teaches them how to make their Internet searches very specific.
Show BrainPop video: "Internet Search"
(BrainPop username=qms, password=qms)
Take quiz at end of movie.
advanced search